VFN TORCH

NEW APP, “PEEPLE” EVALUATES YOU, LIKE YOU EVALUATED BUSINESSES in three areas: Professionally, Personally, or Romantically. How will your friends and neighbors evaluate you? Will it cost you your job, relationship, or friends? People all over the world in uproar of the very nature of this new app. “Do not Judge, or you too will be judged.” Jesus Is this what He Was Talking About? Do we all fear judgment? Will there be a final judgement for all of us?

LISTEN NOW! Many of us have heard of and have possibly seen the many resources that allow someone to provide reviews. Whether a business, a product, a restaurant, or even a service, there are many out there. Can you imagine a mobile app that allows you to post ratings and evaluations about other people? Well it’s here and it’s called ‘Peeple’.

In the welcome video, posted by ‘Peeple’, the app is described with these words. “We believe your character can be a new form of social currency. Peeple is an app that allows you to recommend people in the three ways you know them: Professionally, Personally, or Romantically.” The description continues as the video directs you on what to do with the recommendations you receive; “Take all the amazing recommendations you receive and share them on social media to get better jobs, or more clients.”

The app was originally created in Canada, and according to Peeple, the authentication for a profile to be started, is based on “having a double authentication process through Facebook and a cell phone pin for each user.” But, since its launch, it has received mixedreviews. Originally, the app’s designer’s, Julia Cordray, first design allowed users to give a 1-5-star rating for every person they knew. Initially thinking that it was a great idea wasn’t exactly the response that was being heard. When Houston’s Fox 26 asked one woman about her take on the launch, she describes the app; “It promotes gossip, mean talk. It really promotes tearing others down so that you feel better about yourself.” The original design has since changed and now allows users to choose what posts are allowed and which are not. When asked about the potential of the app being used for cyber-bullying, Cordray has this response; “If somebody is inappropriate with you, you can block them so that they can never ever contact you again…You can’t actually use it for bullying; and you never could.”

At the onset, Cordray did not consider cyber-bullying as a potential drawback to the launching of this app. She spoke on the Dr. Phil Showseeking to set the record straight about some of the misunderstandings regarding the app’s design. Dr. Phil was quite blunt as he interrupted her dialogue by asking her, “Seriously? You went to your VC’s to raise money and nobody around the conference table said, ‘Wait a minute. What about cyber-bullying?”With all of these discussions and responses to this app, one of the concerning truths is that it requires, of all things, a Facebook page in order to be registered. For those who are familiar with social media, this isn’t the best the identification process to be used considering the amount of fake profiles that are used. Consider the reality TV Show ‘Catfish’ that follows the lives and failed relationships of people who find out that the person they’ve been talking to ‘online’ is not the person they were expecting. Considering the dangers of having an app base your profile on your Facebook account, imagine the government having a profile on you and basing your score on your social media activity. Yep, that exists too. It’s called ‘Sesame Credit’and its already being carried out in China. Reportedly, this system will be mandatory in China, in 2020. When looking at the original design of Sesame Credit, we can see the dangers of how someone’s activity can affect their everyday life. Consider this,

Having a high score gives you special benefits, like making it easier to get the paperwork you need to travel, or making it easier to get a loan. Now currently there are no consequences to having a low score, but there’s been talk about implementing penalties once the system becomes mandatory in 2020; penalties like slower internet speeds for low scoring citizens or even restricting the jobs that a low scoring person is allowed to hold.”

Can you see where this is heading? 2020 may seem like a distant date in the future, but it gives increasing concern when looking at one of the Pentagon’s recent additions: CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt.

Regardless of how the world responds to one another, Jesus directed us to love one another. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus shares, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Each of us will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Being so quick to evaluate and judge others, we are forgetting that it is God who judges. God’s Spirit comes and convicts us about judgment. Hear the full story, more about the interviews, the Biblical perspective of judging, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: Yelp, social currency, traveling, criticism, Twitter, Perry Mason, Court TV, American Idol, Britain’s Got Talent, Jimmy Kimmel, RatemyProfessor, Blizzard Entertainment, positive reinforcement, and government. Greg and John shared in this segment. Screen Capture from Youtube.com/Peeple